Although nothing like what was experienced in Singapore last year and in comparison to what China has to experience daily, I noticed that pollution levels were noticeably higher the last few days and today the pm2.5 level seems to be creeping towards 100.

Looking at the sky from my balcony during sunset shows a considerable haze on the horizon. Hope it blows away

IME a 100-150 in Singapore is much harder to deal with than a 300+ in China. In Singapore it's often due to Indonesian brush fires. You smell it and can taste it. In China you don't notice it really, even if you're getting cancer.

zzm9980 wrote:IME a 100-150 in Singapore is much harder to deal with than a 300+ in China. In Singapore it's often due to Indonesian brush fires. You smell it and can taste it. In China you don't notice it really, even if you're getting cancer.

It depends where you are in China and what direction the winds are blowing. Localised burning during the crop harvesting periods in the internal regions of the country, will bring the same pungent pollution to many cities that I can now smell today in Singapore.

That is from the NGO that publishes air quality indices across the region. They use the data that Singapore provides but a more modern approach to the level of harm/hazard etc. Hence the NEA PSI will give one number and say the air is moderate and a-ok while the AQI will show a stronger level of "harm".

I still don't understand why Singapore doesn't get with the program on this. The numbers they track seem accurate enough but their index is out of whack. Bad advertising perhaps.